Rats, still are not better.

Question
My rats had some type of infection called red tears. My vet gave me, dioxicline, and batril, those helped a bit, but the tears are back. They worsen some times, but the rats are not affected with it. What do you think i should do?

Thanks Jeff.

PS

The one rat that had it, i adopted it and spread to the other rats, Only her and Emily have it, I am guessing Emily is about 9 months old, the other just a little older. They live in a large cage, i used total comfort, well not soft sorbent.

I hope i provided all of the info you needed.

Answer
Hi Jeffrey

First of all, before I begin, I would like to ask you a question. When you adopted your new rat, did you keep her from your other rat, Emily, for at least 3 weeks? If not, I will explain real fast why you need to do this. You should always quarantine any new rats you bring home no matter who you got them from, even a breeder or your best friend. To do this, you need to keep them in a totally different airspace, not in another cage across the room. They should not share the same air. Once you do this, you also should take care after being with the new rat and wash up very well, even blowing your nose to rid the lining of your nostrils (the mucus membranes) of any germs you inhaled that your new rat may have carried. You should wash your hands and arms and face and even change clothes. Another easy way is to not go around your other rat for 3 hours because if your new rat has any germs that got on you that you can carry to your new rat, they tend to linger and survive on YOU for up to 3 hours.  You can read about proper quarantine at my website
for more information.  
here is the link:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/thequarantinepage.htm

Now, if I did all this blabbing and you already went through proper quarantine with your new rat, that is fantastic and I am sorry I blabbed for 10 minutes before getting to the issue at hand!!  :-)


The red tears your rats have is called "porphyrin" and having those tears is not an illness at all. What your seeing around the rats eyes and sometimes around the nose are normal secretions from a gland that is behind the eyes. This gland is called the harderian gland. The harderian gland produces porphyrin to lubricate the rats third eyelid. Sometimes when the rat is stressed, the harderian gland produces excessive porphyrin and it secretes more than normal which is why people notice it around the rats eyes and nose. It looks alot like blood at first and it scares new rat owners the first time they see it unless they already know what it is.  Rat owners use excessive porphyrin secretions as a way to tell if their rat is stressed. The stress may be caused by a chance in the cage, a new home, a new cage mate, a new owner, the family pet like a cat or dog the rat is scared of is coming around their cage and they don't like it, OR illness and pain can also cause stress.

When the rat first wakes up, its not uncommon to find extra porphyrin around their nose and sometimes around their eyes too. If after the rat grooms himself and goes about his business and the porphyrin is gone and doesn't come back again until after the rat wakes up from sleeping again etc...that doesn't mean the rat is stressed at all. Its totally normal. However, if the rat is not eating, seems uninterested in treats or doesn't want to play or doesn't want to do the things he normally likes to do, isn't drinking from his water bottle, seems very very lethargic (very sleepy) and is sneezing ALOT and congested in the chest or in the nose, sounding almost like they have a cold, or if you hear any wheezing, that is when its time to worry.  If your rat is eating and playing and not acting sick at all, the extra porphyrin is normal.  
One question I have about the medication your rats were on.
Baytril and doxycycline taken together like that is a good way to treat certain infections, but they should be given this medication for at least 21 days, I prefer a full 30 day cycle.  This prevents relapse. If they are not on it long enough, it is not uncommon for them to get sick all over again with the same thing. Sometimes it is worse the second time around.  Other than the porphyrin secretions, what else was wrong with your rats? Are they sneezing and congested and acting sick or do they just have the excessive "red tears"?

My suggestion would be to have the vet give them the medication again if they did not take it for the length of time I suggested above, which is at least for a full 21 days. If you said they were better after taking the medication, that indicates to me they may have had an infection somewhere.  If they get sick after stopping the medication, that means they were not on it long enough. If you tell me that they took it for the length of time I suggested and they are sick again, the Vet may need to check into giving them another antibiotic other than the doxycycline.  I would suggest an penicillin based antibiotic along with the baytril, but ONLY if they are sick.

I hope this didn't confuse you. Its hard to suggest things when I still need a few more details such as the length of time they were on the medication and if they had other symptoms of illness because porphyrin secretions doesn't always mean they are sick unless they have other symptoms with it.

Please keep me posted and do a follow up so I can continue to help you properly.

Sandra Todd